The White Lotus season 2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Albie is so gross

I am kind of confused by the distaste for Albie in this thread. I don't find him distasteful, I actually do find him to be pretty much what you'd want out of a guy? He takes no for an answer, isn't shaming any of the women for their choices. Isn't excusing the bad behavior of the men in his life. I do think he is going to get screwed over by a woman and we will see his true colors but I don't think he's done anything bad and wonder if this is a choice in itself. Showing a non dominant but confident guy who isn't incredibly anything (not incredibly handsome or powerful or anything at all, just very average, but essentially one of the only people making good choices that don't hurt others) but who is unlikeable for some amorphous reason. A foil to Cam who from all objective measures is absolutely horrible but is SO handsome and affectionate that you have to keep reminding yourself how bad he is when he's not being blatantly terrible.

For me, the distaste is because I get the vibe that he isn't all that he seems/wants to be. He is parroting progressive/feminist ideas he heard in college but he has an underlying entitlement that you can tell is going to come out at some point.

I think he is the classic "nice guy" where he will feel like he is entitled to affection from a woman because he has done and said all the right, feminist-approved things. And he will turn nasty when he doesn't get what he thinks he deserves.

I do not think Albie is some complex incel character that is going to snap.

He’s exactly what he and his mom said: a nice kid. A person who takes in wounded bird girls. Well, the latter is not good.

He just needs a nice type A girl that doesn’t charge him €2000 a night and uses protection.

I would have loved the contrast of some Type A investment banker analyst coming to the resort to scuba dive with her family, sitting next to Albie, he says HI, and she says, Aren’t you always making out with that hooker? No thanks, not my style. And walk off to another beach chair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Albie is so gross

I am kind of confused by the distaste for Albie in this thread. I don't find him distasteful, I actually do find him to be pretty much what you'd want out of a guy? He takes no for an answer, isn't shaming any of the women for their choices. Isn't excusing the bad behavior of the men in his life. I do think he is going to get screwed over by a woman and we will see his true colors but I don't think he's done anything bad and wonder if this is a choice in itself. Showing a non dominant but confident guy who isn't incredibly anything (not incredibly handsome or powerful or anything at all, just very average, but essentially one of the only people making good choices that don't hurt others) but who is unlikeable for some amorphous reason. A foil to Cam who from all objective measures is absolutely horrible but is SO handsome and affectionate that you have to keep reminding yourself how bad he is when he's not being blatantly terrible.

For me, the distaste is because I get the vibe that he isn't all that he seems/wants to be. He is parroting progressive/feminist ideas he heard in college but he has an underlying entitlement that you can tell is going to come out at some point.

I think he is the classic "nice guy" where he will feel like he is entitled to affection from a woman because he has done and said all the right, feminist-approved things. And he will turn nasty when he doesn't get what he thinks he deserves.

I do not think Albie is some complex incel character that is going to snap.

He’s exactly what he and his mom said: a nice kid. A person who takes in wounded bird girls. Well, the latter is not good.

He just needs a nice type A girl that doesn’t charge him €2000 a night and uses protection.

I would have loved the contrast of some Type A investment banker analyst coming to the resort to scuba dive with her family, sitting next to Albie, he says HI, and she says, Aren’t you always making out with that hooker? No thanks, not my style. And walk off to another beach chair.

Um, what?

[Anonymous]

I think some people have hesitations about Albie because he is a sweet guy who is attracted to, as he puts it, wounded birds. I think a lot of adult women would not want to be viewed as a wounded bird and would want men to be attracted to them because they admire and respect them, not because the man believes that he needs to save them. I don’t think Albie is evil or anything but I do understand why his savior energy puts some women off… women who don’t feel like they need to be saved might find this kind of behavior grating and possibly condescending. His mentality also puts him at risk in the scenario with Lucia, she is aware of his desire to save her and can manipulate and take advantage of that and it seems likely will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you guys think Daphne is happy with her situation? I get the feeling that some people here think she has her cake and is eating it too (married to rich, good looking Cam, banging a hot trainer on the side) but some of her facial expressions suggest to me that she’s not happy about Cam’s cheating, she knows way more about it than she’s letting on to Harper, and she might end up snapping.

It seems to me that she is lying to herself when she tells Harper she’s found a way to be at peace with it.

I haven’t seen the comments you are referring to but it does seem like she is yearning for happiness and trying to find it, despite the challenges she faces within her relationship. Clearly she is not happy with Cameron‘s behavior and feels ashamed and upset by it. I do see, though, why she is in the position she is in. She wants to maintain her nuclear family and the idea of a nuclear family makes her happy as well as the lifestyle that she lives being married to Cameron. I think she is happy often but that it takes a lot of energy to ignore his behavior and maintain the level of happiness that she wants. She is a smart woman and I imagine it takes quite a toll on her to continuously bury her head in the sand and pretend that she is not aware of Cameron‘s antics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think some people have hesitations about Albie because he is a sweet guy who is attracted to, as he puts it, wounded birds. I think a lot of adult women would not want to be viewed as a wounded bird and would want men to be attracted to them because they admire and respect them, not because the man believes that he needs to save them. I don’t think Albie is evil or anything but I do understand why his savior energy puts some women off… women who don’t feel like they need to be saved might find this kind of behavior grating and possibly condescending. His mentality also puts him at risk in the scenario with Lucia, she is aware of his desire to save her and can manipulate and take advantage of that and it seems likely will.

I agree with this. I don't think he's evil and I don't think he's going to snap or turn Incel, but I do think he has a savior complex and is a bit too attached to the idea of himself as a Good Guy (tm). It is understandable given his family. He probably feels protective of his mom who is the "victim" in his parents' marriage (even though from everything we know about her, she's not a victim at all and wouldn't see herself that way). And it's important to him to see himself as better than his dad.

I do think he's going to get burned by Lucia and it's going o be eye opening for him. Because I think something that might dawn on him is that his dad has a savior complex too. Dom says he's a "sex addict" but when you see him with Lucia and Mia, he's kind of doting and affectionate towards them. He's careful to let Lucia down easy and tell her he really liked his time with her. He also lets Lucia kind of bully him into the night with her and Mia, because at that point he's tried to tell her he wants to "change" but she just kind of charms him into it, and to some degree he lets them in because he feels bad about letting her down. That is VERY SIMILAR to the dynamic between Albia and Lucia when she tells she costs money but sort of places the whole thing on her "pimp" and makes him sympathetic to her. Lucia recognizes that both of these men want to get laid but that they have a need to feel like they are doing it as a favor to her or to help her in some way. She is very savvy.

I think it would be interesting to see Albie realizes that all of his "I just want to help these women" protests are really not much different from how his dad views his own infidelity. And Bert pulls this crap too, explaining that he treated his wife well despite cheating throughout their marriage because he kept it under the radar.

I think lot of men who cheat on their wives with much younger women are like this. They view themselves as helping the younger women and don't understand that it's really all about their own ego, and wanting to feel like they CAN help. That's why they are drawn to young women they perceive as weak and helpless. These guys aren't cheating with beautiful, powerful, women who are financially independent and don't take crap from anyone. They cheat with young girls who are looking for father figures.

But Lucia is actually a pretty independent and strong woman who plays into the innocent young girl stereotype in order to get what she wants. She's exploiting these guys weaknesses that they are too lacking in self-awareness to even realize are weaknesses. They think this is the best thing about them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you guys think Daphne is happy with her situation? I get the feeling that some people here think she has her cake and is eating it too (married to rich, good looking Cam, banging a hot trainer on the side) but some of her facial expressions suggest to me that she’s not happy about Cam’s cheating, she knows way more about it than she’s letting on to Harper, and she might end up snapping.

It seems to me that she is lying to herself when she tells Harper she’s found a way to be at peace with it.

I think people like to think that a person is happy or sad. When in reality people are usually not so easily organized. Daphne I think is happier than she is sad, and accepts these issues as worth the price of her life. I think she is very happy with some things, with how he loves her, their kids, their lifestyle, and unhappy about others. But I go to work in an unfulfilling job every day to make all the parts of my life I love work, and I think she views this similarly. Life is complex and a series of trade offs, some lives moreso than others.

I think the people who are struggling with this show in the comments here are just people who struggle with ambiguity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you guys think Daphne is happy with her situation? I get the feeling that some people here think she has her cake and is eating it too (married to rich, good looking Cam, banging a hot trainer on the side) but some of her facial expressions suggest to me that she’s not happy about Cam’s cheating, she knows way more about it than she’s letting on to Harper, and she might end up snapping.

It seems to me that she is lying to herself when she tells Harper she’s found a way to be at peace with it.

I think people like to think that a person is happy or sad. When in reality people are usually not so easily organized. Daphne I think is happier than she is sad, and accepts these issues as worth the price of her life. I think she is very happy with some things, with how he loves her, their kids, their lifestyle, and unhappy about others. But I go to work in an unfulfilling job every day to make all the parts of my life I love work, and I think she views this similarly. Life is complex and a series of trade offs, some lives moreso than others.

I think the people who are struggling with this show in the comments here are just people who struggle with ambiguity.

I agree. I am also a little bit fixated on her bull elephant comments because I think they were very telling. She wants to be the mom elephant with her baby elephants laughing and splashing and she does feel sad for the bull elephant males that are wandering alone, out there thinking they are doing something important but really missing out on the joy that is thriving with their families. She also does see their behavior as a biological imperative not as a choice, it’s the way the pods are structured. So, I don’t think she is happy with what Cameron does but I think she is happy with the role that she has and has no desire to be separated from her kids and not living a life of luxury and ease.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the first few episodes I thought this season is a flop. Whoever is playing Portia is pretty bad and so are Italian girls, their roles are so stupid. There is no depth.

Now it’s becoming a bit interesting.

There is a lot of speculation on TikTok that the Wyoming lover is Tanya’s husband and they gays will try to kill her to get her inheritance to pay for their villas.

Agree that Portia is not a great actress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the first few episodes I thought this season is a flop. Whoever is playing Portia is pretty bad and so are Italian girls, their roles are so stupid. There is no depth.

Now it’s becoming a bit interesting.

There is a lot of speculation on TikTok that the Wyoming lover is Tanya’s husband and they gays will try to kill her to get her inheritance to pay for their villas.

Agree that Portia is not a great actress.

Why you don’t like her excessive head nodding with Albie

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the first few episodes I thought this season is a flop. Whoever is playing Portia is pretty bad and so are Italian girls, their roles are so stupid. There is no depth.

Now it’s becoming a bit interesting.

There is a lot of speculation on TikTok that the Wyoming lover is Tanya’s husband and they gays will try to kill her to get her inheritance to pay for their villas.

Agree that Portia is not a great actress.

Portia is a character on a television show. She is not an actress. You may not like her character -- I often find her grating. However, I also think that is how she was written.

Haley Lou Richardson is an actress who plays Portia on the television show White Lotus. She has played characters in a number of movies. She is good in the Edge of Seventeen but my favorite is the Kogonada film Columbus, where she plays opposite John Cho. It's a big role and she's really good in it. She has a lot more range as an actress than I would expect given her looks, which are very girl-next-door.

I think it's interesting that the PP's least favorite characters are all the young women with limited power and options. I am not sure PP understands the underlying themes of the show, just as I am not sure you understand that Portia is a character, not an actress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I fully agree that out of this lot, Alvie and Ethan are the best guys. Alvie is my favorite. I’m not sure what is up with Ethan’s sexuality. But at least he doesn’t cheat on his wife, unlike Nonno, Dom, and Cameron, and possibly trying to murder her like Greg, or effing about with other men when he’s supposed to be meeting up with me like Essex boy. So Alvie is the best of this bunch imho.

I like Albie. I think I married an Albie, so I will be very disappointed if he turns out to be a jerk. Because so far he is nice and cute and much better then all of the other men.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's amazing to me that women (I'm a woman, ftr) are all over this thread talking about how they don't trust Albie, they think he's a jerk, they don't trust Ethan, he's the worst. But Cameron is far and away the worst guy on the show and hardly anyone calls him out on it. Most of the comments are just about how Theo James is hot. But Cameron is disgusting. Understand if he's cheating as aggressively and flagrantly as we've seen him during this week (with a couple hookers he met in the bar, trying to hook up with Harper right in front of his wife), he's also a TRASH dad and likely has some kind of constantly rotating STDs that he passes onto his wife.

Dom's also a piece of work but at least he is capable of acting like a kind person in the moment even if his big picture behavior is terrible.

But people are focusing in on Albie and Ethan? Okay. Who, by the way, are both incredibly attractive but also NOT cheating a$$holes.

I think there is less conversation about Cameron being an ahole because there is no question about it; there isn’t a lot of room for discussion around if he’s secretly bad or whatever. It’s obvious.

+1 what's to say - he;s hot and horrible. the others seem more complex, so more interesting to talk about.

I think he's actually there to be like, people like Cameron seem more dangerous but he's actually maybe the least dangerous because Cameron is transparently awful. You see him and you understand what his flaws are. They aren't hidden. His horribleness is on display and a threat that is clear and on display is in some ways less threatening and easier to manage.

The other men keep their dangers more hidden, they are harder to pin down. And so in some ways they are more dangerous. You see a bear you avoid a bear. The lioness silently stalking you or the quicksand you don't see can be more dangerous because you aren't defending yourself from them.

I think a point here is that the show wants you to see Cam and immediately see his grossness and to judge him for it. And then have all these other ambiguously bad men emerge more quietly to show that there are threats everywhere, and one shouldn't necessarily feel like just because they aren't like Cam there are 'good'. He is the black and white in a show that plays in shades of grey.

DP

I dunno - it does not feel like the writers care that much about the audience.

I just see nearly all the characters as empty and vapid. Even the prostitutes are conveyed with little sympathy for the circumstances that led them to that life at such a young age.

The only character I find likable is played by Aubrey Plaza but I am sure the writers will mess her up soon enough …

Why do you think the writers care about the audience? This series is about making you uncomfortable not about giving the satisfaction of wrapping the story up with a bow where the bad guys get punished and the good guys rewarded. It is about how everyone is good and bad and justice is not dispersed fairly and how that is an uncomfortable truth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think some people have hesitations about Albie because he is a sweet guy who is attracted to, as he puts it, wounded birds. I think a lot of adult women would not want to be viewed as a wounded bird and would want men to be attracted to them because they admire and respect them, not because the man believes that he needs to save them. I don’t think Albie is evil or anything but I do understand why his savior energy puts some women off… women who don’t feel like they need to be saved might find this kind of behavior grating and possibly condescending. His mentality also puts him at risk in the scenario with Lucia, she is aware of his desire to save her and can manipulate and take advantage of that and it seems likely will.

He's not attracted to strong women b/c he doesn't see those in his family of origin. Mom and grandmother treated like dirt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the first few episodes I thought this season is a flop. Whoever is playing Portia is pretty bad and so are Italian girls, their roles are so stupid. There is no depth.

Now it’s becoming a bit interesting.

There is a lot of speculation on TikTok that the Wyoming lover is Tanya’s husband and they gays will try to kill her to get her inheritance to pay for their villas.

Agree that Portia is not a great actress.

Portia is a character on a television show. She is not an actress. You may not like her character -- I often find her grating. However, I also think that is how she was written.

Haley Lou Richardson is an actress who plays Portia on the television show White Lotus. She has played characters in a number of movies. She is good in the Edge of Seventeen but my favorite is the Kogonada film Columbus, where she plays opposite John Cho. It's a big role and she's really good in it. She has a lot more range as an actress than I would expect given her looks, which are very girl-next-door.

I think it's interesting that the PP's least favorite characters are all the young women with limited power and options. I am not sure PP understands the underlying themes of the show, just as I am not sure you understand that Portia is a character, not an actress.

She was great in Columbus - also in After Yang.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I fully agree that out of this lot, Alvie and Ethan are the best guys. Alvie is my favorite. I’m not sure what is up with Ethan’s sexuality. But at least he doesn’t cheat on his wife, unlike Nonno, Dom, and Cameron, and possibly trying to murder her like Greg, or effing about with other men when he’s supposed to be meeting up with me like Essex boy. So Alvie is the best of this bunch imho.

I like Albie. I think I married an Albie, so I will be very disappointed if he turns out to be a jerk. Because so far he is nice and cute and much better then all of the other men.

You married a beta who busts in 10 seconds? Hmmm

Not everyone wants a knuckle-dragging mouthbreather, Jane.